Chapter 13

Somewhere in the more affluent part of Roud City, a certain estate rose above all others, easily eclipsing them in size and grandeur. As far as the public eye knew, it belonged to one Mr. Raoul Bertrand, a successful entrepreneur and highly respected member of the community. With his impeccable manners and charming smile, everyone looked up to him as a shining example of gentlemanliness. However, and as the saying goes, all that glitters is not gold...

Indeed, Mr. Raoul was not what he seemed, for a horribly twisted secret festered behind his pristine smile. In truth, he was a member of the Blue Diamond Fellowship, a secret society that effectively ruled all of Galia from the shadows. Furthermore, he was also the head of a massive underground operation centered on white slave trafficking — the true source of his wealth. He himself kept a number of enslaved women in his mansion, who were routinely forced to have sex with him and his associates under threat of death or worse.

Adelaide and Natalie were only two of his many, many victims. They had both been taken from the streets when they were at their most vulnerable; the former in 1156, and the latter in 1158. Both of them were eighteen years old at the time of their respective abductions. After one and a half years of grueling abuse and sexual exploitation, Natalie was eventually sold to a morally bankrupt banker in St. Belaroix. Six months later, in September of 1160, she was finally able to respond to the call of the forest.

The morning after Natalie and Duskprowler’s paths merged in the forest of Lanea, Mr. Raoul received an unexpected visit in his mansion. It was a balding man with gray hair, whose face seemed frozen in a perpetual frown. That, along with his stern, angular features, painted the picture of a sixty-year-old person who had probably never smiled even once in his life.

“Ah, Dr. Einfern!” said Mr. Raoul as the grimacing old man stepped into the foyer. “It is such a rare occurrence that you would visit us when there’s no new ‘merchandise’ for you to fix. Oh! Could it be that you finally decided to put your research aside for a moment to have a little fun with my girls?”

“Hmph! You know I’m a devoted man of science, Raoul. My research is my life. Unlike you, I have not the time nor the desire to concern myself with the distracting pleasures of the flesh,” the scowling doctor said. “Such primitive indulgences are simply well beneath me.”

“O-of course, but, well... There’s no harm in unwinding every now and then, wouldn’t you agree? Besides, I think eminent geniuses such as yourself should not deprive themselves from enjoying the fruits of their labor.”

“The fruits of— Are you referring to your so-called escorts?” the doctor scoffed. “Their neutering is, at best, just a byproduct of my research. They’re simply convenient sources of test samples; that’s all.”

“Ah, yes, your ‘test samples’...” Mr. Raoul repeated as both men walked into the guest room. “You’ve been collecting wombs for years now. I can only wonder what use you could have for them. After all, I thought your research was centered on... some kind of flower, was it?”

“Selenia flowers, yes,” Dr. Einfern said as he took a seat. “They’ve been extinct for centuries, or so we thought. Indeed, according to ancient scriptures from before the Age of Knights, there’s a single patch of selenias in a secret garden guarded by one ‘Wolf Queen.’ If we find it, we could finally put Plan Zero in motion.”

“Oh! I didn’t know Plan Zero hinged on finding those flowers!” Mr. Raoul exclaimed as he poured some Chardonnay on his and Einfern’s glasses. “But what does that have to do with the wombs you harvest from my girls?”

“Without going into specifics, I have reason to believe that a select number of young women are granted access to this secret garden every year. The objective of my research is to understand exactly how they are chosen, so that we can use that knowledge to our advantage,” the doctor explained while the other man took a sip from his glass. “The more samples we procure, the more likely we will eventually happen upon one of these ‘chosen’ women ourselves. It’s a statistical certainty.”

“Ah, I see. I suppose that makes sense,” said Mr. Raoul. “It is still hard to believe that any of my girls could be the key to anything, but I understand it’s not my place to question it. After all, I am but a simple man with simple needs. All I really care about is that I can freely indulge myself with the ‘byproduct’ of your research. That alone is good enough for me.”

“Hmph,” grunted the perennially surly doctor.

“Regardless, if I may ask, what brings you here today?”

“Simply put, I came to collect one of your escorts.”

“Oh? But I thought you said—”

“It’s not that!” Dr. Einfern curtly exclaimed, interrupting the other man. “Something most unexpected happened yesterday shortly after sundown: one of the wombs disappeared!”

“It... disappeared?” Mr. Raoul said, cocking an eyebrow. “Couldn’t you have simply misplaced it?”

“Absolutely not! I take great pains to ensure each and every sample is properly cataloged and stored in accordance to a system that leaves no room for human error! No, it simply vanished out of existence! In fact, the flask containing it imploded at once due to the sudden vacuum inside. Why, I had to spend an hour cleaning up the resulting mess of broken glass and spilled formaldehyde solution!”

“Huh... I don’t know what to say. Human organs don’t just disappear like that... or so I would hope.”

“I wouldn’t have believed it myself if I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes! I even stayed up the whole night trying to find a scientific explanation, but it was to no avail!” the doctor affirmed. “All I could determine is that it was the sample taken from subject number N-5891: Natalie Fernández. Needless to say, I want her strapped to an operating table in my lab right away!”

“Natalie Fernández, you say?” Mr. Raoul hummed, taking a few moments to remember the face associated with that name. “Ah, yes, the shapely teenage blonde who lived with that homeless old woman in the streets. I’m afraid I sold her to Mr. Vert — a banker from St. Belaroix — about six months ago.”

“WELL, GET HER BACK!!” the doctor roared as a vein bulged on his temple. “I don’t care what it takes; you MUST retrieve her at any cost, do you understand??”

“Y-yes, Dr. Einfern. I understand,” the man said, somewhat shaken by the doctor’s sudden outburst. “I will write Mr. Vert a letter to inform him of this immediately.”

“You do that, and make sure he understands the urgency of the situation!”

“Of course, Dr. Einfern. I will be very clear in that regard.”

“Good! I’ll take my leave then. Keep me informed!”

And with that, the sinister doctor rose from his chair and left. He hadn’t even touched his Chardonnay.

~*~

Meanwhile, in Howling Grove...

Natalie’s day began with Duskprowler helping her find her inner soma early in the morning. First, the son of Darkhowl had her close her eyes and feel all that surrounded her, from the sky above to the soil under her feet. Then, as her senses learned to ‘see’ the world beyond her sight, he asked her to visualize a spiritual version of herself standing in that new space. “See the ‘you’ that exists within you,” he had said.

With the voice of her lycca-mate gently guiding her steps, it didn’t take her long to find her own heart and connect to it. And since the gift of change fuses with the heart, this connection instantly opened her senses to the marvelous shapeshifting power that now resided in her soma. Soon, the young woman discovered herself standing on the powerful legs of her she-werewolf form; and then, a few minutes later, on the four paws of her feral wolf form.

Experiencing the world through the heightened senses of these two new forms was like a heavenly revelation to her. Now feeling overwhelmingly full of energy, Natalie sprinted from one end of the grove to the other with Duskprowler by her side. She laughed happily as she felt the grass under her lupine paws, and the wind rushing past her furred face; her heart bursting with the liberating joy of absolute freedom. Of course, it is safe to say that her confidence grew tenfold after this.

Shortly afterwards, Elise and Anabelle reintroduced themselves to her, but this time in their werewolf forms. Marjorie and Rose joined them moments later, also as their werewolf selves. “So, did he kiss you?” the huntress eventually asked Natalie with a mischievous grin. The latter simply looked down coyly, blushing furiously beneath her fur. “Heh, your face says it all. Lyccan tongues never fail, do they?” Rose said as she gave Duskprowler a wink no one else noticed.

Around mid-morning, once introductions were over, Natalie’s soma-bonded lycca-mate took his mother aside and told her about the ‘other vanni in Roud’ privately. Anabelle was confused at first, but soon understood that it was someone the young blond woman deeply cared about.

“Natalie-vanni’s heart will not truly be at rest until she has seen that her soul mate friend is safe,” Duskprowler told his mother. “That is why I decided to go to Roud City with her, so that we can rescue Adelaide-vanni together from the clutches of her abominable captor.”

The snow-white she-werewolf saw the unshakeable resolve in his eyes, and immediately told him that neither of them would be going to Roud alone. “A mansion? Armed bodyguards? I’m sorry, but that sounds much too dangerous for just the two of you. If you’re dead set on doing this, I’m coming with you. Otherwise, it’s just not going to happen.”

Once she had said that, Anabelle told her son to go talk with Fleetpaw at once. “I have the feeling he will know what to do about what you found in Natalie’s heart. After all, no one knows more about obscure lyccan stuff than him,” she told her offspring. “In the meantime, I will hatch an action plan with Rose and the others.”

And so, while Duskprowler left to seek Fleetpaw’s counsel, the white she-werewolf went back to the other four girls. Then, once everyone was on the same page, the five of them began to discuss various courses of action. Natalie was particularly surprised by Anabelle’s nonchalance about the prospect of potentially storming a mansion full of armed goons. “Eh, I’m not scared,” the angelic lycca-vanni simply told her.

“Ah, don’t let her looks fool you, newbie!” boisterously said Rose with a swish of her tail. “Our Annie-girl here is tough as nails, like you wouldn’t believe! If she’s going, that piece-of-shit Raoul guy is pretty much done for!”

“Right, but I wouldn’t underestimate them if I were you,” Elise told the black-furred one. “As frighteningly strong as we can be, a bullet is still a bullet, you know...”

“Also, let’s not forget the core rules, girls. They exist for a reason,” Marjorie added, taking a step forward. “We aren’t supposed to ever start trouble unprovoked, let alone hurt or kill anyone, no matter how much we might think they deserve it. In fact, we aren’t even allowed to show our werewolf selves in the outside world unless absolutely necessary.”

“Yeah, tell that to Miss I’m-Friends-With-An-Inspector,” said the huntress, flicking an ear dismissively.

“Okay, we can probably write that off as an exception. I mean, Mr. DuPont hasn’t broken Anabelle’s trust yet, so I think we’re fine there, Rose. But this other man, Raoul... Just going by what Natalie has told us, it looks like we’re dealing with a rich bastard who kidnaps helpless girls to sell as slaves, and he also has his own personal army. How can we go against that without breaking the rules and, you know, putting the secret of our existence in jeopardy?”

“It’s not impossible. If we play our cards right, it can definitely be done. It’s just a matter of seeking the cover of the night, and sticking to the shadows, which is what we happen to do best,” replied the jet-black she-werewolf, moving her tail to the side.

“Also, we have another big advantage over them: they don’t expect us,” added Elise, nodding. “And they especially don’t expect Anabelle.”

“Very much true. And the new girl has lived there before, so she can give us all the intel we need.”

“Hmmm...” said the big gray she-werewolf. “Still, this won’t be anything like our monthly excursions to the village. We’ll have to really bring our A-game here, girls.”

“I, uh...” suddenly said Natalie, drawing everyone’s attention. “Am I in trouble?”

“Huh? What do you mean, honey?”

“W-well, I already broke a rule, didn’t I?” she said, fidgeting. “I— I mean, I did kill Mr. Vert, so...”

“Oh, that? That didn’t break anything. The rules aren’t retroactive,” explained Rose, shaking her furry head. “You killed that son of a bitch before you even met your lycca, so you’re fine. Just, you know, don’t do it again, okay?”

After that, the five lycca-vanni began to formulate a strategy. Understandably, Natalie could only contribute so much to that discussion, on account of her lack of experience in being a werewolf. It’s also worth mentioning that, at one point, Marjorie suggested the possibility of avoiding any conflict by simply buying Adelaide’s freedom, since Anabelle could definitely afford it.

“Yeah, no, I’m not going to validate that guy’s ‘business’ with my patronage. That’s not happening,” promptly said the snow-white she-werewolf, nipping that idea in the bud.

Regardless, by the time Duskprowler returned, a viable plan of action had been finalized. First and foremost, it was decided that only Anabelle would accompany her son and his mate on their trip to Roud.

“Smaller numbers help with stealth,” reasoned the white-furred one. “Besides, there will be only so much room in the carriage.”

“The carriage?” Rose asked, arching an eyebrow. “What carriage?”

“The horse-drawn one we’re going to board, of course! I mean, we just don’t have the time to make this trip on paw, especially considering Natalie has only just learned to transform. It hasn’t even been three hours since she stood on her lycca legs for the very first time.”

“Ah, yes, that’s right!” said Marjorie with a nod. “I forgot that they have to come back before her Moon Stone appears on the Moon Pedestal!”

“Granted, it would be more sensible to just postpone this whole thing until her Oneness Test is complete, but I doubt she wants to wait ten entire days for that. Or maybe I’m wrong? What do you say, Natalie?”

“Wait, Oneness Test? What’s that?” asked the blond werewolf, puzzled.

“Ah, it’s something we can worry about later, when we come back,” Anabelle told her, putting a supportive claw on her shoulder. “Er, unless you actually prefer to wait ten days before we go to Roud?”

“N-no... I’d rather go save Adelaide now, if at all possible.”

“I figured so,” the white lycca-vanni said, smiling.

“Well, girl, Moon Stones usually appear five to seven days after a new vanni has joined the pack,” the voluptuous she-werewolf with the gray coat of fur reminded her. “Are you sure you can make it to Roud, get Natalie’s friend, and come back before her stone appears?”

“Yeah, you’ve been to Roud City many times with Darkhowl, and it always took you about ten days to make the round trip,” Elise pointed out.

“That’s only because we take our sweet time. Darkhowl and I enjoy seeing the sights and whatnot, but we obviously can’t afford that luxury now. Which is why we’re taking the express carriage instead. It’ll get us to Roud in about eight hours, so that’s the way to go.”

“Eight hours?? That’s fast!” the grayish-brown lycca-vanni exclaimed, her ears standing straight up.

“Yep! Those guys have fast horses, and there are stops along the way where they can replace the ones that get exhausted. I know because Mr. DuPont himself told me all about it one day,” Anabelle explained. “Anyway, I’m pretty sure the next one departs at noon, so we better hurry.”

“Wait!” Rose suddenly exclaimed. “Wouldn’t it be dangerous for the new girl to show herself in public like that? I’d imagine the police might be after her because of that Vert guy, so...”

“That will hardly be a problem. First of all, other than Vert himself, no one in the village knew she existed.”

“Also,” Natalie herself added, clearing her throat a little, “w-when I walked here, I was wearing dirty, bloodstained rags, and my hair was a disheveled mess. I might as well have been a completely different person.”

“Yeah, you’ll be fine. But just to make sure, we’ll put you in a nice, fancy dress. That, plus a little make-up, should do the trick.”

“Hmm, okay, it sounds like you have it all figured out,” said the huntress, shifting onto a more relaxed stance. “Still, try not to stand out too much, I guess. And don’t forget to take some rope with you, just in case.”

Roughly one hour later, Anabelle and Natalie left Howling Grove and headed towards St. Belaroix’s Carriage Station. Of course, both of them were in their human forms, clad in the finest, yet least striking garments they could procure on such short notice. Anabelle in particular also donned a hood to conceal her albino hair in an effort to avoid unwanted attention.

Fortunately, their carefully considered ‘disguises’ did their job just fine, and it all went according to plan. Thus, the two women reached the station without anyone really paying them any notice. Then, after buying their boarding passes, they both went aboard their designated carriage, which departed shortly afterwards. And as for Duskprowler... He really had no other choice but to make the trip stuffed inside a large suitcase strapped to the roof of the carriage. It wasn’t exactly comfortable or dignified, but at least he managed to sleep through most of it.

After an uneventful journey, the horse-drawn carriage arrived to Roud City’s station on time, at around 08:30 p.m. Firstly, the two women walked out of view, then released Duskprowler from his cramped confinement. The smuggled lycca — in his wolf form, of course — promptly stretched his limbs and headed to the nearby woods. He would remain there for the duration of their stay in the city, as was the plan. After all, core rule number three forbid him from setting foot in lands claimed by man, unless it was a matter of life or death.

Once they were in the city proper, Anabelle and Natalie went to Mr. DuPont’s home. After a brief explanation, the three of them rode a coach to the clinic Olga Fernández had been admitted to two years prior. Upon arriving, and after flashing his badge, the inspector quickly gained access to the clinic’s records. And that’s how Natalie finally learned that the old Castilian abuela who had adopted her had never survived that fateful night. In fact, she had been pronounced dead on arrival.

“At least now I know she’s resting in peace,” said the young blond woman, thanking the good inspector for helping her get closure on that.

Mr. DuPont’s part in Anabelle’s plans for that night ended there. The latter simply didn’t want to involve the former in something that would have most assuredly imperiled his life. After all, infiltrating the headquarters of a human trafficking ring was no small matter, to say the least. Therefore, after saying their good-byes, the blissfully unaware inspector headed back to his home. He truly had no idea of what the two Howling Grove women were planning to do next.

“Alright, Natalie. It’s time,” the white-haired one told her travel companion. “Are you ready?”

“Y-yes, I think so...”

“You’re going to step into that horrible mansion again, and you might even find yourself face-to-face with that man. You sure you can handle it?”

“Yeah, I spent the whole trip mentally preparing myself for that. I think I’m as ready as I can possibly be,” Natalie affirmed, giving her de facto mother-in-law a nod of assurance. “I won’t say I’m not scared at all, but I know he has no power over me anymore. I mean, I can turn into a deadly werebeast now, and the moon is on our side, so it’s not like he—”

“That’s the thing I’m mostly worried about, actually,” said Anabelle, interrupting her. “I need to know that you won’t lose control, Natalie. Remember that we are never to take justice into our own hands. That’s not what our claws are for.”

“Yes, I know, don’t worry. I’ll keep my cool, I promise,” the blond girl confidently stated. “I just want to get Adelaide out of there, that’s all.”

“Good,” the white-haired woman said, smiling. “So, shall we go?”

“Yeah, let’s do this!”

And so, off they went, headed directly towards Mr. Raoul’s estate...

~*~

It was around 11:30 p.m. in Roud City. While the innocent slept, a swift shadow moved silently under the veil of the night. Shrouded in a pitch-black cloak, it leaped and bounded effortlessly from rooftop to rooftop, making nary a sound as the pale glow of the moon shone above. That’s right: Anabelle, the clawed angel of death, was on the prowl.

Gustaff wasn’t an innocent man, nor was he sleeping. On the contrary, he was the head of Mr. Raoul’s security, and was stationed relatively close to the mansion’s front door. Certainly, Gustaff was very much qualified for that job: he was a heavyweight mountain of honed muscle, trained in eight different martial arts, who also had thirteen marksmanship badges proving his exceptional proficiency in the use of firearms.

Indeed, Gustaff was, by every definition of the word, a force to be reckoned with — an insurmountable wall no conceivable threat could possibly clear. Unfortunately for him, Anabelle was well beyond anything he had ever faced before. And at the end of the day, Gustaff still was only human, qualified only for subduing human foes. As such, he never really stood a chance.

Seemingly dropping from the night sky itself, the cloaked figure of the albino woman suddenly landed right behind him. In one single motion, she swiftly disarmed the man, putting him in a chokehold as she pressed the muzzle of his own pistol against the underside of his chin. It happened so fast, it took him a few moments to even comprehend that he was at someone else’s mercy now.

“Where’s your boss?” Anabelle asked him.

“W-who the hell—Urk!” the man choked as his unseen assailant tightened her deathly grip.

“I said: where’s your boss?” she repeated herself, pointedly enunciating each word.

Gustaff couldn’t believe just how inhumanly strong Anabelle’s grip was! It scared him. It scared him more than the fact that she had his own pistol against his chin. It was a primal fear the likes of which he had never experienced before.

“He— He’s in his study. Alone,” the man finally said.

“Perfect. Now, if you don’t want to die, you will do as I say,” the cloaked woman told him, her voice as cold as the embrace of death. “I want you to gather all your men and leave. Discreetly. Just tell them your boss ordered it, and make sure to act natural. Your life depends on it; do you understand?”

“I— I, ghk—!”

“Oh, and even if you won’t see me, you better believe this gun will be pointed at your head the entire time. That means no funny business. Just round up your men and send everyone home. Also, make sure you leave the door unlocked for me, okay?”

The eerily calm tone of her words was perhaps the most unnerving part of it all. Anabelle knew exactly what she was doing as she spoke with the disturbing detachment of a cold-blooded assassin. That, along with her abnormally strong grip, put the very fear of God Himself into Gustaff’s heart. All color drained from his face as he fully realized the sheer hopelessness of his situation: ‘Sh-she’s not bluffing! If I don’t do as she says, she will absolutely kill me!’

“I —urk!— I understand!” he struggled to say, wheezing painfully.

“Good,” the cloaked woman quietly uttered as she released him and stepped back, the pistol still aimed at his head. “Remember, I’ll be watching you, so you better be on your best behavior if you know what’s good for you.”

“Y-yes, ma’am!” he croaked out amidst labored gasps, clutching his sore throat.

“Also, you’re not allowed to enter the mansion. Send someone else instead. And if I so much as see you twitch an eye wrong at anyone, or make any sort of hand signal, you’re dead. Don’t try me: I have very good eyes and ears...”

She said this while flashing him a bone-chilling smile full of monstrously sharp teeth. Her eyes were glowing too, completing a supernatural picture the man would see in his nightmares for the rest of his life. Still smiling, Anabelle slowly retreated into the shadows of the night, never breaking eye contact. She kept walking backwards in this manner, fading into the unknowable veil of darkness, until Gustaff could no longer see her.

Cold sweat rolled down his forehead, his panicked heartbeats throbbing loudly in his ears. Even though he couldn’t see Anabelle anymore, he knew she was still there somewhere, watching him like a prowling wolf would its prey. He could even feel the oppressive sensation of her gaze burning a hole in his soul. The pressure was overwhelming. Any wrong move, however small, and the pieces of his brain would be splattered against the walls of the mansion...

‘F-fuck this shit! I don’t want to die! Not like this!’ he finally shouted inwardly, caving to the unfathomable terror that had seized him. His loyalty to his boss simply wasn’t worth losing his life to a demonic woman from the fiery bowels of Hell.

Thus, swallowing his pride, the man went to do exactly as Anabelle had told him. He relayed ‘Mr. Raoul’s orders’ to his men outside, instructing one of them to enter the mansion and tell the others. He also urged them to be fast, yet discreet, affirming that their boss was taking care of a very delicate issue in his study. “It requires his full, undivided concentration, so he is not to be bothered until further notice,” he said.

The goons were somewhat befuddled at first, but Gustaff’s delivery was convincing enough, and they trusted him. Besides, they were paid to follow orders, not to question them. And so, within the space of ten minutes, they all had walked away from the estate. The entire mansion now stood without any sort of protection, and Mr. Raoul, locked in his study, was none the wiser...

“Wow! I can’t believe that just worked! And you made it look so easy!” exclaimed a second cloaked figure who had been waiting in a dark corner.

“Yes, well, as tough as that guy might have been, he had the misfortune of facing a threat he could have never been ready for. Also, no one is completely immune to fear. Strip them of their confidence, show them how fragile they actually are, and they all crumble to pieces. It never fails,” spoke Anabelle as she rejoined her companion. “Anyway, the coast is clear. Ready for the next part?”

“Yeah, I’m ready,” Natalie said with a determined look in her eyes.

“Alright. So the guy said Raoul is alone in his study. Do you know where that is?”

“I do; it’s that window over there,” the blond one replied as she pointed a finger at a large lit window over a balcony on the second floor of the mansion.

“I see,” the white-haired woman said while adjusting the hood of her cloak. “Well, I’ll keep an eye on him while you go get your friend. Let’s move.”

And so, Natalie headed towards the front door while Anabelle leapt to said balcony with the elastic agility of a cat. After taking a big breath of air to steel herself, the young blonde in black opened the door and stepped into the foyer. Her heart was pounding. The carpeted floor, the patterned wallpaper, the furniture, the big staircase ahead... It all brought back horrid memories from the past. It was inevitable, but she pushed onwards all the same.

‘Focus, Natalie. You’ll be fine. Remember that you’re not helpless anymore, and Anabelle’s here too. We can do this,’ she told herself as she lowered the hood of her cloak.

When the young woman approached the staircase, one of Mr. Raoul’s enslaved escorts walked into the foyer from a side hallway. This other woman, clad in the overly suggestive maid clothing they were all forced to wear, immediately stopped in her tracks. “N-Natalie?” she gasped, shocked to see the blond girl again after so long. Of course, Natalie shushed her at once, then quickly went closer to her as more ‘maids’ emerged from various doors nearby. There were many familiar faces among them, but none was Adelaide’s.

“Everyone keep quiet, please!” the cloaked one told them in hushed whispers as they cautiously gathered before her. “Listen: the guards are gone, and the front door is open. You are all free to escape if you want.”

“W-what do you mean they’re gone? What’s going on, Natalie?” one of them quietly asked, vocalizing everyone’s confusion.

“I don’t have time to explain. They’re just gone, and won’t be coming back till next morning.”

“And what about Mr. Raoul?”

“He’s still here, alone in his study. He has no idea the guards all left.”

Quiet murmurs began to spread among the women huddled around Natalie.

“So what you’re saying is that, right now, the only people in this mansion are Mr. Raoul and us?” another one of them said.

“Yeah, exactly.”

The tone of the hushed murmurs began to shift. An idea started to form. The blond girl in the black cloak immediately noticed the change in the atmosphere. This ominous idea, dark in nature, had taken root in their hearts, and began to grow stronger and stronger with each glance exchanged. At that moment, Natalie knew she had just armed a time bomb, and it was ticking down fast...

“Girls, wait!” she urgently exclaimed in whispers. “Before you do anything, please let me get Adelaide out of here first! She’s the one I came back for!”

“Uh...” one of the escorts began after an uncomfortable pause. “Adelaide’s not here. I’m afraid Mr. Raoul sold her this afternoon.”

“W-what?? Who did he sell her to??”

“We have no idea; I’m sorry.”

‘Fuck!’ Natalie cursed inwardly, gritting her teeth as her hands balled up into fists. ‘I was hoping I didn’t have to see his face again, but... I guess I will have to confront him after all!’

As the young girl tried to come to terms with that reality, the murmurs around her continued to reinforce the sinister idea everyone else was entertaining. Latent plans began to solidify, feeding on the growing bloodlust emanating from their hatred-filled eyes. Decades’ worth of abuse and oppression were about to explode violently, and there was no stopping it.

“Uh— Girls! Girls! I know what you’re all thinking, and I get it, but I need to talk to him first!” Natalie said after noticing how strong the dark intent in the air had become. “Just give me ten minutes alone with him, please! That’s all I need to make him tell me where Adelaide is. After that, you can do whatever you want.”

“Y-you mean you want to face him alone? Are you crazy?” one of the others asked.

“I don’t have a choice!” the cloaked one exclaimed in whispers. “I mean, could any of you promise me things won’t spiral out of control if we all went in there together?”

No one was able to answer that question.

“Everyone here is itching to take their revenge on him — and with very good reason, don’t get me wrong!” Natalie continued. “But I can’t risk losing my only lead, so that’s why I have to go in there by myself first. Just ten minutes, it’s all I ask.”

“...Okay, but what will you even do? You don’t expect that son of a bitch to just tell you where Adelaide is, do you?”

“Oh, he’ll talk,” she declared with a glimmer of confidence in her eyes. “Things are different now. I’m not the same Natalie I was before, and I also have a friend outside watching my back. Mr. Raoul simply doesn’t stand a chance.”

“I see...” hummed the escort, taking notice of said glimmer. “Well, if you really think you and your friend can take him on, sure, go for it. If anything, it’ll give us some time to prepare ourselves. Just... try not to get killed, okay?”

“Thank you, and don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”

Having said that, Natalie went up the flight of stairs leading to the second floor, alone. Soon, she stood before the closed door to Mr. Raoul’s study. A shaky hand stopped only inches away from the doorknob. ‘Damn it! ‘I’ll be fine,’ I said, but the truth is that every fiber of my body wants to turn tail and leave! Why did this have to happen?? Fuck, if only I could’ve come here a few hours sooner...’

The blond cloaked girl made a fist again, gritting her teeth. ‘Come on, Natalie! You’re a werewolf now! Stop being afraid of a man who can’t even lay a finger on you anymore! If anything, it’s him who should be afraid of you!’

She eventually closed her eyes and exhaled in a controlled manner, calming herself down. ‘Alright. That’s enough. Just remember who you’re doing this for,’ the young woman told herself inwardly, invoking her memories of Adelaide. ‘Give me the strength to do this, Addie. Lend me the courage I need to open this door, please. I promise I’ll make him tell me where you are, and then I’ll go save you.’

After taking another big breath, Natalie opened her eyes and pressed forth. With clenched teeth and fire in her pupils, she gripped the doorknob and aggressively pushed the door open. A sumptuous room lined with bookshelves immediately revealed itself before her. In the center of the room lay a mahogany desk. A well-dressed man was sitting behind it, with his back to a large window. There was a quill on his hand.

“W-what the—!?” he exclaimed, startled by the sudden intrusion.

As soon as she saw his face and heard his voice, an enormous tidal wave of revulsion hit Natalie’s stomach dead on. The dreadful memories it dredged up almost made her recoil in disgust, but the strength of her determination prevailed.

“How did— W-what are you doing here??” Mr. Raoul exclaimed as he stood up, still confused.

“Where’s Adelaide!?” the cloaked girl angrily demanded.

“Adelaide? You came all the way from St. Belaroix for her?” the man asked, hardly believing what he was seeing. “How did you even make it past my guards? I don’t—”

“Did you not hear me? I asked: WHERE. IS. ADELAIDE!?”

Mr. Raoul stood silent for a few moments, his visage cast in shadows as Natalie waited for an answer. Eventually, his lips seemed to shift into an oddly unsettling smirk, and then...

“My, my, Natalie! What happened to your manners? That is not a tone you use to address your original master, my dear,” he said, clicking his tongue. “How could Mr. Vert let you forget your place? Has he not been strict enough with you?”

“Just answer the fucking question!!”

“Or else what? What happens if I don’t feel like answering it, Natalie?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“I don’t? How fascinating...” the despicable man said as he slowly, surreptitiously reached towards one of the drawers under the desk. “You know, I was busy writing a letter addressed to Mr. Vert just now. I was going to ask him to bring you back here, but I suppose that won’t be necessary anymore. In fact, I should thank you for saving me the trouble of negotiating a refund with him.”

“I doubt he’d have read that letter anyway,” the young woman told him. “I’m afraid the pig’s too busy pushing up daisies.”

“You don’t say...”

Mr. Raoul began to open that drawer, making sure Natalie didn’t notice.

“Frankly, it offends me that you’d dare stand before me bearing such a deplorable attitude, especially after all I’ve done for you,” he said. “I rescued you from the streets, remember? I helped your grandmother when no one else would, shared my roof with you, kept you fed, and also gave your meaningless existence an actual purpose! Do you seriously not realize just how much you owe me?”

“You— You BASTARD! YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME!!”

“Regardless,” he continued, the drawer almost fully open now, “since you’re already here, I’m afraid a lesson in humility is in order. After all, my dear, you are far from being the first bitch to turn against me. It never ends well for them, you know?”

He began to reach into the drawer...

“Mark my words,” the detestable man said with an ominous smirk: “you will rue the day you decided to come back.”

CRAAASH!!

An explosion of shattered glass shook Mr. Raoul as a black shadow smashed its way in through the window, bringing him down at once. Without skipping a beat, and using only one hand, the dark silhouette twisted both of his arms behind his back, pinning him to the floor. With the other hand, she took that which the man had tried to retrieve from the drawer.

“You asked her what happens if you don’t answer her question, right? Well, this is what happens,” said the cloaked shadow — Anabelle — as she crushed the object in her fist right before his eyes. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think Natalie will be ruing anything anytime soon.”

The hooded albino woman opened her hand, releasing the useless heap of crushed metal that used to be Mr. Raoul’s personal handgun. The latter was stunned speechless, his jaw hanging in utter shock.

“W-what are you?” he tried as Anabelle tied his wrists together behind his back with a length of rope.

“Me? I’m just a friend of Natalie’s,” she said with an eerily dissonant smile. “Now, how about you take a seat?”

Before he could respond, the white-haired angel of death picked him up and sat him down onto his chair, tightly looping another length of rope around his waist and the back of the seat. By the time he managed to react, Mr. Raoul could only struggle uselessly against his bindings.

“Heh. It’s not that fun when it happens to you, is it?” mockingly said Anabelle to him before turning to Natalie. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Y-yeah. Thanks,” the latter responded. “I... hadn’t realized he had his gun in that drawer.”

“Well, let’s just get this over with, shall we?”

Suddenly, the man shouted:

“I— I know what you are! You’re one of those chosen women the doctor spoke about, aren’t you? That inhuman strength, the disappearing sample, whatever you two did with my guards... A-and it must be the same with you, Natalie! It’s all because of the flowers, isn’t it? The garden of selenias — both of you must have harnessed its power!!”

Anabelle and Natalie exchanged confused glances before turning back to him.

“I have no idea what you’re rambling about,” the cloaked albino woman told him. “Look, we just came for Adelaide, okay? We’ll leave as soon as we find her, I promise.”

Weirdly, Mr. Raoul began chuckling to himself. Then, his chuckle turned into laughter, which soon became the demented cackling of a madman.

“I’m sorry, but you’re late!” he scornfully proclaimed, still laughing like a maniac. “I’m afraid your precious Adelaide is in another mansion!”

“Just tell us where she is, god damn it!!” Natalie demanded, taking a step closer to him.

“Do you think I can just tell you that? Client confidentiality in this line of business is beyond sacred! I’d be FUCKING DEAD if I broke it, you imbeciles!”

“You’ll be dead right now if you don’t,” calmly asserted Anabelle as she pulled his head back, lightly grazing his exposed throat with her fingers. “I mean, you remember what I did with your gun, right? Would you like me to do the same thing with your throat?”

“Y-you wouldn’t!”

“Oh? You think I don’t have it in me to do this? Wanna bet your life on that?” she said as she slowly began to wrap her fingers around Mr. Raoul’s throat. “I warn you: it’s going to hurt like hell, and I plan to take my sweet, sweet time...”

Anabelle flashed him a terrifying smile as her thumb started to exert some light pressure on his windpipe. Although he was sweating profusely, Mr. Raoul remained tight-lipped, but his determination wouldn’t last. Soon, the pressure began to mount, steadily pushing against the hard cartilage underneath. Eventually, he couldn’t take it anymore. As soon as he felt the faintest pang of pain, all his resistance caved in at once, and he folded.

“I’LL TALK! I’LL TALK!” the man desperately cried. Then, as Anabelle loosened her grip on his throat, he tearfully recited a name and an address in a broken whimper. He didn’t even attempt to deceive her with false information either. Indeed, the cold, constricting vines of absolute terror she had so expertly wrapped around his heart ensured the thought couldn’t even cross his mind.

“There you go. Was that so hard?” said the albino woman as she unhanded him. “Alright, Natalie, I think we’re done here.”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Without further ado, Natalie turned on her heel and headed towards the door.

“I’ll meet you outside!” Anabelle shouted as she stepped through the smashed window and jumped off the balcony.

Then, just as the blond one had reached the door frame, she stopped and turned to face Mr. Raoul again. “Oh, by the way...” she spoke, coldly staring into his fear-stricken eyes. “Yesterday I met the only person in the world I would proudly call my master. He conquered me not through fear, but through the tender warmth of his loving, gentle heart. In fact, just the mere concept of hurting me is alien to him. That alone makes him a thousand times the man you will never, ever be.”

The broken tycoon bound to the chair could only look at her through bewildered eyes, not knowing what to say.

“You’re nothing compared to him, you sorry excuse for a human being,” she continued. “Even dog shit has more value than you. And isn’t it funny how pathetically helpless you truly are without the safety net of your bodyguard army? Yeah, you’re just a cowardly rat who hides behind his money, power, and influence, preying only on those who have no chance to defend themselves. But I’m afraid that, today, the prey has finally become the predator...”

“W-what are you going to do, Natalie?” he nervously asked, fearing for his life.

“Me? Nothing,” she calmly responded. “As much as I may loathe your guts, I have no desire to stain my hands with your filthy blood. Now that I know where I can find Adelaide, there’s nothing else for me to do here. I’ll just take my leave, and that’s it.”

“Wait!” Mr. Raoul exclaimed before Natalie could step out of the room. “A-aren’t you going to untie me? Please?”

“You have some nerve, asking me that...” said the blond girl, making a disgusted face. “Did you think I forget the many, many times you had me bound and gagged, begging for mercy? You fucking relished our misery, you sick bastard! Well, now it’s your turn to be ‘put in your place!’ It’s only fair, don’t you think?”

“N-name a price — any price! I swear I’ll pay it!” he pitifully begged as tears ran down his face.

“Sorry, but I have no use for your dirty money.”

“I’ll give you a thousand Gold, Natalie! No, TEN thousand Gold! T-that’d be enough, right?”

“Good-bye, Mr. Raoul. We’ll never meet again.”

“Fine, I’ll give you twenty thousand Gold! Natalie! Wait, please! D-don’t leave me like this! FIFTY! FIFTY THOUSAND GOLD!! PLEEEEEASE!!”

Natalie left the room in stoic silence, completely ignoring Mr. Raoul’s desperate supplications. As she headed towards the staircase, the young woman saw that all of the ‘maids’ in the mansion were gathered there. They were standing together in complete silence, as though they had been waiting patiently for their turn. The dark intent emanating from them was almost palpable now, and their eyes... Their glacial stares perfectly reflected the sheer intensity of the seething hatred raging within them.

“You got all you needed from him, right?” one of them asked.

“I did,” Natalie confirmed. “You can do whatever you want now. I’m leaving.”

“Wait. Before you go...” that same escort said while producing a very particular item.

“T-this is...!” the young blonde in the cloak gasped as her former ‘coworker’ handed her said item. It was a little box made of bronze. It had a long, thin chain, and its sides were decorated with gorgeous engravings resembling flowers. “This is Adelaide’s antique pendant!”

“They ripped it out of her hands, and threw it in the garbage when they came for her, but we saved it,” the other woman explained. “And now I’m entrusting it to you, as we all know that’s what she would have wanted.”

“Thank you,” Natalie quietly uttered with a faint quiver in her voice. “She’ll be very happy to have it back.”

“Alright, you can go now,” the woman nodded. “Save her, Natalie. Take her away from this hell, and never look back.”

“I will!”

No more words were spoken. In solemn silence, the cloaked one went down the flight of stairs, headed back to the foyer. At the same time, the others moved forth in the opposite direction, marching straight towards Mr. Raoul’s study. One by one, they all filed into the room through the opened door, saying absolutely nothing. The icy glare of their eyes, however, spoke volumes. And the glistening blades of the knives in their hands spoke even louder...

“Girls? Wh-what are you— No!” the master of the mansion, still helplessly bound to his chair, exclaimed in a horrified tone. “No, wait! Let’s talk it out! I— I’ll set you free! All of you! And I’ll give you money! Good money! T-there’s no need to— No! Put that away! Girls, please, listen! It doesn’t have to be this way! Don’t— AH! GAAAHHH!! WAAAAAGGHHHH!!!”

The blood-curdling screams echoed throughout the accursed mansion as Natalie opened the front door. With not a shred of remorse in her heart, the young woman stoically sauntered out that door as though she wasn’t hearing anything. After meeting with Anabelle outside, both women simply walked away in silence, pointedly ignoring the fading screams in the distance. And so, the two cloaked shadows disappeared into the night from whence they had come.

To be continued...